Hi, everyone! Are you on track for everything that needs to get done before Christmas? I kind of feel like I am, I have three more gifts to wrap and create gift tags for, and I need to do some grocery shopping, but everything else is finished, so I’m ready for Christmas Eve to come around and the festivities to begin.
I created this gift tag for my niece. It’s quite a big tag, its diameter is about 5″. The white circle panel isn’t just a panel, it’s dry embossed using an embossing folder from We R Memory Keepers. Unfortunately, dry embossing doesn’t show up very well in photos, and even less so when you’ve used white cardstock. It’s there in real life, though, and it provides a little bit of texture. I colored and die the Christmas Baking image from Rachelle Anne Miller, and popped it up on foam tape in the center of the white panel, before creating a hole at the top, adding an eyelet for strength. Through the hole I thread some cherry red divine twine and a tiny little cookie cutter embellishment, I thought it fit the image well.
On the back I added another diecut circle that I’d already added a To/From stamp to, using Scarlet Jewel ink from Papertrey Ink. I cut a slit above and below that to feed the candy cane to, and double up on the foam tape when I glued it to the larger circle.
Quite a few Copics for this one, and I used B90, which is a color I’ve created myself, on the background.
I decided to go for a version in gray and green, and used a die from Papirdesign to create a scallop heart for the front of my gift tag. I stamped a sentiment from Norsk Stempelblad AS using Ripe Avocado ink from Papertrey Ink.
I diecut a regular tag shape from patterned paper from Maja Design using a die from My Favorite Things and glued the scalloped heart to the regular tag.
For the back of the tag I die cut the regular tag shape again from that same patterned paper as the one for the front, as well as a second scalloped heart from white cardstock. I used the same green ink as I did on the front to stamp the To/From stamp from Norsk Stempelblad AS.
Not a lot of Copics used for this one, but it’s a small image.
This is a simple one. I colored 
On the back of the tag I die cut an additional two tags from patterned paper from Maja Design and stamped a To/From stamp from Norsk Stempelblad AS using Olive Twist ink from Papertrey Ink. I used a couple of strips of patterned paper to get a candy cane in there, as well.
I added some twine through the top of the tag and even a snowflake charm, but let the rest be very simple. I’m hoping this penguin will put a smile on my sister’s face, she loves penguins, and this one is going to her and her husband.
Lots of grays for the penguin, and also quite a few greens. I love this green combo.
I colored up just a portion of the image and made it into a polaroid by using a polaroid frame die from My Favorite Things that I love. I die cut the frame three times from white cardstock and glued them together for a stacked look.
I decided to stamp a sentiment onto the polaroid frame using Blueberry Sky ink from Papertrey Ink. The sentiment is from a stamp set from Inky Wings.
I decided to put my polaroid frame on a blue card base. This blue cardstock is Blueberry Sky from Papertrey Ink, the same color as the stamped sentiment. I used an old snowflake frame die from Memory Box that I diecut from white cardstock.
I cut down my card base to make a 4 bar card. I like the smaller size, but don’t make too many cards this size, so I thought I’d change things up a bit. Once again, I have no graphic to show what Copics I used, but hopefully I’ll have my template remade in a few days.
It’s no secret that I’m a fan of penguins and polar bears, and even though their habitats are on opposite sides of the globe, they’ve come together for this card. I mean look at them; that cute cub with a scarf and hat and that penguin sitting on a present with a candy cane in his hand – just too cute to pass up.
The little polar bear’s name is 
Here’s a bit of a closeup. I swear the bear has some color, even though he looks very one dimensional here. I stamped a sentiment from the 
Once I finished my coloring, I took the largest of my A2 Stitched Rectangle STAX dies from My Favorite Things to create a nice edge on my scene. I sprinkled on chunky white embossing enamel from Stampendous, heating the panel from the back until the granules melted. I glued my panel straight onto a top folding card base I made out of Papertrey Ink Blueberry Sky cardstock.
The 
I had a leftover piece from a card I made earlier this year, so the dark blue base and the 
I decided to go for a teal and gray color combo today, and white berries on the wreath instead of red ones. I just used a gray colored pencil to trace around the outline of the berries, everything else is noline colored using Copics. I used a stitched tag die from My Favorite Things to create the actual tag.
I diecut a couple of pieces of scraps of patterned paper using the same die. I chose Julbukett from the Fröjdefull Jul collection from Maja Design and Good Cheer from the Christmas Magic collection from Fancy Pants Designs, which happens to be a collection from 2009, I have a lot of patterned paper. I stamped a to/from stamp from Norsk Stempelblad AS using Hawaiian Shores ink from Papertrey Ink straight onto the patterned paper. I made a hole at the top, added an eyelet, some twine and a bell, and my tag was done.
I wanted my cluster with the sentiment to be more to the right than to the left, so I flipped my image in Photoshop to make the boy and the dog look to the right instead of the left, it fit my card better. It’s one of the great advantages of digital stamps.
Once I’d colored in my image, I used my favorite faux stitch rectangle die from My Favorite Things to turn my colored piece into a panel for the front of my card. I added about half a tiny paper doily from Doodlebug Design, and some die cut scraps of Maja Design patterned paper, before adding a green strip with a word (Christmas hug) from Papirdesign using foam tape.
I added another little piece of the green patterned paper from Maja Design towards the bottom of the left hand side and glued on a few snowdrift sprinkles from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards, before adhering everything to a card base I made out of Soft Stone cardstock from Papertrey Ink. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy, right?
I tried to limit the amount of Copics I used on the snow for this one. Only five (plus the blender) isn’t too shabby.
I used Anyu and Nanook Igloo for my card today. They’re part of the 
I used my trusty faux stitch rectangle die from My Favorite Things to turn my colored piece into a panel before stamping the perfect sentiment from Mama Elephant’s Holiday Messages stamp set using Enchanted Evening ink. I wanted to pick up the blue from the little girl’s coat, and this is such a pretty blue. I sprinkled on chunky white embossing powder and heated the panel from the back to create my snowy look, before adhering my panel onto a cardbase I made from After Midnight cardstock from My Favorite Things. I added a few snowflakes that I diecut using an old Marianne Design die that I absolutely love, and my card was finished.
Here you can see the effect of the chunky white embossing enamel. It’s nice and thick and adds a bit of texture to the card, it kind of feels like braille when you touch it, it’s really cool, not to mention quicker than drawing on snowflakes with a white pen, also with the added bonus of it being more random than you’re able to achieve on your own.
No surprise that I used mostly cool tones for this card, except for the skin colors and the ears and tongue of the dog.
Papirmølla 